Recent Post

Success Factor of E learning Program

Internet has affected and
changed the world of communication. Internet is a medium of collaboration and
interaction of people of different geographical locations.

Many networks existed in
the world, often with different hardware and software. People connected to one
network often want to communicate with people attached to a different network.
This desire require connecting together different, and frequently incompatible
networks, sometimes by using machines called gateways to make the connection
and provide the necessary translation, both in terms of hardware and software.
A collection of interconnected networks is called Internet.

With the advent of Internet, it has become
clear that we are living in the information age. The information age is
supposed to be the third revolution after agricultural and industrial
revolution, as suggested by many historians. The information age is the
analysis of the information quotient in military and geopolitical affairs; it
is an epoch of fundamental change in philosophical, intellectual, cultural and
social terms.

Many historians are agreed
that information had a great impact on many things and produced a new
environment from technologies that already exist. The information technology
affected many things like intelligence, logistics, command and control etc.

Some historians are of the opinion that the
information revolution actually shaped the Agricultural and industrial
revolutions. They said that the seed of information age were sown thousands of
years ago. To give evidence for their claim they said that the civilization
began when the nomadic traders and merchants traveled from one place to
another. These traders and travelers have access to many cultures. They shared
products as well as stories and customs between different tribes. They learned
the tactics of different tribes of problem solving, learned the customs of
different tribes etc. this sharing of information was the beginning of the
civilization.

This sharing of information
is supposed to be the basis, which led the humanity towards agriculture and
farming. Similarly the information sharing about the tools and the information
about how to use it led the man towards the Industrial age. Thus it is sure
that if the civilization began with the nomadic traders then the seeds of
information Age were sewn then.

The Information Society can
be determined as the large group of people within a country or a region wherein
most workers generate or depend upon information for performance of their jobs.
Today information is the largest export of most News services, banks, insurance
companies, television stations etc. these all organizations collect data,
process it into information, distribute it, and store it as a major part of
their business.

The term Information
Society is often used to refer the new socio-economic technological paradigm,
which occurs due to the results of changes that are taking place. The
information society has the ability to improve the quality of life of the
citizens of today’s world, the efficiency of our social and economical
organization and to reinforce cohesion.

·Information society has the
capacity of shrinking the distances between people and countries and that is
something we have already experienced in our present day life that Internet has
shrunk the distances between us and made the world a global village to live

·In market economies there
are strong forces that lead us towards concentration. In information society
social cohesion are necessary to balance economic progress and justice

·Equality of opportunity
between men and women has enhanced in Information Society and that is something
which we experience in our daily life

·It has the potential to
improve the quality of life of old people by facilitating independent living in
the community

·Information Society helps
to redesign and reshape the healthcare delivery and scope

Information
society is important because:

·Communities are better able
to generate employment opportunities and wealth in the global market

·It helps to change the
social and demographic welfare trends

·The Information Society has
the ability to support more cohesive and integrated communities

·The unemployed persons can
find some ways to play an active role through Information Society

As discussed earlier
Internet has changed everything. Thus it has affected the education also and
gave birth to the concept of distance learning or e-learning. Let us first see
what is E-learning anyway?

1.2 Background of the Problem:

Distance education is not a new thing; it
has a rich and long history. The earliest form of distance education took place
in Europe through correspondence courses. In
the late 1950s and early 1960s master teachers conducted classes of distance
education through television. Unfortunately this practice was not successful
because of the teachers appeared on television were not the good television
presenter and mostly failed to hold the interest of the audience. The trend has
changed in 1970s and professionally designed and produced television series
introduced students to new subject matters that was not currently being taught
in the classroom.

The
major drawback of this type of distance education was lack of two-way
communication and interaction between the teacher and the students. With the
emergence and popularity of Internet, this problem has solved and the distance
learning has evolved into e-learning. The office of technology Assessment said
that, “teachers have to be allowed to choose, willing to make choices, and
qualified to implement their choices effectively. OTA finds that, just as there
is no one best use of technology, there is no one best way of teaching with
technology. Flexibility should be encouraged, allowing teachers to develop
their personal teaching approach utilizing the variety of options offered by
technology” (US. Congress, 1988, p. 17).

1.2.1 Delivery Methods:

Distance learning or the e-learning used
the following methods to deliver its content:

·Compressed Video: it
costs less than the interactive television systems. It involves two-way audio
and two-way video connections for fully interactive, multimedia connectivity
through fiber optics.

·Audio-Conferencing: it
usually incorporates an audio bridge where the students at remote locations
call in for synchronous conversation. Audio-Conferencing is well-suited for
lecture, seminar, and round table discussions of higher level education·Internet: Internet provides
point and click access to the instruction, which is linked with hypertext. Web
also provides pictures, text, graphics, audio and some video in an interactive
environment. According to Thomas McManus it “combines media advantages of other
media so that it conveys video and sound better than a book, is more
interactive than a videotape and, unlike a CD-ROM, it can link people from
around the world cheaply” (McManus 1995).·Computer Conferencing: Computer
conferencing can be both synchronous and asynchronous. It includes Internet
Relay Chat (IRC), Multiple User Domains (MUD) and Multiple User Object
Oriented. Assignments can be done usually offline and then uploaded to the
server where it can be e-mailed to professors. ·E-mail: E-mail is a
necessary element in e-learning and used for most of the student to professor
and student to student interaction.·Asynchronous Learning
Networks: it uses computer-mediated communication from an institutional system
approach. Asynchronous Learning Networks needs that technicians, librarians and
the academic support personnel work together for its success. “The A-V
technician of the past must become an instructional technologist who combines
the application of technologies with the design of instruction" (Lemke
Dressner, p. 1 1995)·Electronic Classrooms: it
allows a particular number of students from their homes anywhere in the world
to enter the classroom in real time.·CD-ROM: CD-ROM is also used
as a tool for bringing distance learning program at the homes of the students.
It helps to cut cost and can be more effective than the class room training.·Computer Supported
Collaborative Work: it combines the computer technologies and communications
within groups in a distributed environment. Functions include decision support
systems, project management tools, shared editors and conferencing systems·Computer Supported
International Learning Environments: it can assist the students by allowing
information to be entered on a database which can be reviewed or retrieved over
distributed networks. The
statistics have shown that there exists a dramatic shift from conventional
classrooms to the e-learning classrooms. It has
been predicted that the uptake for e-learning become 11.4 billion in the year
of 2003.

·Mix Mode: it uses several different
methods of delivery instead of a single method. “Single mode delivery systems
do not provide enough instructional power to ignite the student's interest
because they fail to provide student involvement". (Hirschbuhl et al. P.
95, 1995)

1.3 Statement of the Problem:

The most prominent question
is why e-learning become so popular and what are the benefits of e-learning.
David Porter has said, “As completion and success rates improve, as students
continue with their education, gain access to courses previously unavailable to
them, and as they increase their chances of going on to post-secondary
education or workplace training, the benefits to the system and to society as a
whole can begin to be factored in to the policy options and decision making
equations” (David Porter, p.26, 1994).

This study will attempt to show the critical factors
responsible for the success of the e-learning program.

1.4 Purpose of the Study:

The
major objective of this study is to present the critical factors of success of
e-learning program which helps the universities in successful development or
enhancement of their existing learning program. The study will use a web-based
survey to rank critical success factors and this study will query the faculty
ad administration of e-learning programs.

1.5 Research Question:

The question,
which can be dealt and tried to be answered in this report, is:

What are the critical factors
responsible for the success of an e-learning program?

A
web based study, which will query the faculty and administration of e-learning
program, will be used to rank the critical success factors of e-learning
program.

1.6 Significance of the Study:

This
research study is important because it describes the importance and quality of
an e-learning program. It defines what are the important factors, which make an
e-learning program successful and which could aid universities in successful
development or enhancement of their existing learning program.

1.7 Scope of the Study:

This
study will look at critical success factors of online learning program and its
importance on teaching and learning. This study will also conduct a web-based
study, which is relevant principally to faculty and learning program directors.
This study will help to rank the critical success factors of an e-learning
program.

1.8 Limitation of the Study:

There is a
methodological limitation in this study as it is a pilot study. Thus the
generalizations will be left to the discretion of the concerned persons.